The head of the myeloma clinic at the Cedars-Sinai Centre in Los Angeles, Professor Brian Durie, said in Sydney that while the disease commonly affected people over 65, an increasing number of baby boomers were being diagnosed.

"In recent years we found that not only has the incidence [of the diseases gone up, but it's occurring in somewhat younger people." he said.

Professor Durie believes evidence that some myeloma patients have a cancer-causing virus called SV40, which contaminated early batches of polio vaccine in the 1950s and 1960s, may explain why baby boomers are developing disease.